St. Marys beats back beats up QHST

BAYSIDE, NY - With the newly released NYCHoops.net Top Ten Teams rankings, Thursday's game at the Beacon 158 Back-to-School Tournament interestingly featured one ranked Long Island team versus a New York City team on the bubble.

Although Queens HS of Teaching (QHST) put up a valiant fight, #3 ranked St. Mary's would eventually coagulate and take down the PSAL squad, 81-58.

St. Mary's smoked QHST in the opening moments of the game with a 13-0 run led by 6'6" sophomore Chris Coalmon and 6'10" freshman Nicholas Richards. With 12 minutes left in the half, the Gaels led 18-2 and never relinquished their advantage.

QHST found some offense from Masia Philips and sharpshooter Supadeep Singh but Richards defensive presence around the rim made scoring inside almost impossible. QHST briefly countered, feeding off of the perimeter game of Singh but with 7:02 left in the half trailed by 11.

A surge by Coalmon helped to punt St. Mary's lead back to 17 points with 3 minutes left in the opening half. QHST responded late and found themselves on the butt end of a 41-26 deficit at the midway point.

QHST came out in the second half fired up and James Augustin and Matt Newton helped cut the lead to 44-35 with 16:54. St. Mary's finally regained its offensive footing but QSHT was now gaining ground and had the momentum.

At the 13:53 Gaels Head Coach Bill Harkins finally called a timeout to steady the troops as Philips drained a jumper pulling QHST within 4 points. Coalmon seemed to be St. Mary's only offensive weapon but it would be enough.

Defensive lapses began to plague QHST as Richards began to finish off put-backs with rim rattling dunks. St. Mary's advantage increased to 10 at the 10 minute mark as QHST committed turnovers. 6'9" Joshua Nurse, QHST's big man, was essentially nullified by Richards' inside game and relegated to attempting low percentage long range shots.

Coalmon continued to torch QHST. 2:08 remained in regulation and the Queens, NY Public School was suddenly trailing, 71-52. The hole was too deep for them to recover.

St. Mary's was led by Coalmon who finished with 33 points while Richards added 19 points. Queens HS of Teaching was paced by Augustin with 20 points.